The Secret Languages of Ireland

CONTENTS

Introduction

page ix

Chapter I

Ogham

I

II

Cryptology

37

III

Hisperic

62

IV

Bog-Latin

89

V

The Vagrants of Ireland

123

VI

Shelta

130

VII

Bearlagair na Saer

225

VIII

Summary

255

Appendix:

An English- Jargon Vocabulary

258

Index

283

THE SECRET
LANGUAGES OF IRELAND

i

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Macalister,.. Robert Alexander > Stewart, I87O-I950
The secret languages of Ireland.

.Pr.^ 1 ^ ^- he; 193? Sd * P ublishe * ^ the University
pPress, Cambridge. °

JU Shelta. 2. Irish language-Writing. 3. Cant.

t' So T? e ";5J St0iy - 5. Druids and druidism.
II. Sampson, John, I862-I93I. II. Title

1^9001.^2 1974 U 9 1'.6 lh-^22

■^sarfr-di+iU-6115-5 (lib.bdg.)

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF

THE SHELTA LANGUAGE

partly based upon Collections and Manuscripts of
the late

JOHN SAMPSON, Litt.D.

Sometime Librarian of the University
of Liverpool

by

R. A. STEWART MACALISTER

Litt.D., LL.D.

Professor of Celtic Archaeology, University College
Dublin

Limited 100 Copies

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Folcroft Library Editions

Box 182

Folcroft, Pa : 19032

CAMBRIDGE

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1937